That was how the next ten days passed by in peace. The ruckus in the castle had died down. Everyone had their accommodation.

All the cultivators had been put under one fleet, which was controlled by Renga. The old man put them into three divisions, each division with its commander. The first division would see to the domestic security and peace among the citizens. The second division would watch the walls and the entrance gate. The third and final divisions were selected in secret. They didn't have any uniforms and nobody knew about them. They were to watch the entire castle and its people in secret. Only Renga and Abdin knew about them.

Sulat was infuriated to no end after realizing there was a third division he wasn't aware of. But there was nothing he could do but swallow his anger.

On the surface, everything was going just fine. Tairen had already started taking classes in the evening. The largest building in the castle was given to the academy. It had over thirty classrooms. The children enrolled were all cheerful. Most of them had been living in mud houses all their lives and were born from ordinary parents with no talent for cultivation whatsoever. They had no hope of becoming cultivators just like their parents. But now everything had changed. It was a dream come true for them and their parents.

However, there was still some level of conflict beneath the surface. These people had only known each other for a month or so. Everyone just wanted to favor his kind. The three or four forces in the castle had been secretly fighting for supremacy.

Will of San had the strongest faction that purely consisted of cultivators. They were all proud and domineering toward the others.

There was another faction that consisted mainly of ordinary people, led by Cemu. There was strength in numbers. Although they were the weakest faction, they had the numbers.

The last faction came from Biyakis and consisted mainly of the forces from Wuran and Nanila. They controlled the security of the castle together with the cultivators from Will of San. Still, the people from Will of San acted with superiority. It was like they were soldiers and the others were just local vigilantes.

All three factions were afraid of making any move. They'd seen how powerful Abdin was, and it was clear they didn't see it all. They'd also sworn with their pol, any one of them that betrayed the contract would lose their cultivation. So they had no option at the moment but to live in peace with each other.

The pol oath didn't prevent them from conspiring beneath the surface. As long as they didn't make any move physically, they wouldn't suffer anything. Abdin just laughed inwardly whenever he saw them. He rarely appeared in public so they didn't know what he was planning. That also forced everyone to be on edge.

What they didn't know was that right now Abdin didn't care much about them. There was only one person in his mind - Juwaira Shen. Even after several weeks, there was no sign of the princess. Did she turn around and flee to Shurein?

On the thirteenth day, Renga ran into the meeting hall, gasping.

"The castle is cut off from the outside. We can't open the gate and we can't even fly over the walls. We are completely cut off from the outside."

Abdin went to confirm it. Everything had happened just like before. He reassured the guards and left.

On his way back, he received a warning about the castle.

[It's time for the 1st expansion. Congratulations on your achievements of reaching all the requirements.]

[During the expansion process, two towns and three villages have been absorbed. Less than 500 human lives and some livestock are lost.]

Damn castle. It looked down on humans so much that it wouldn't mention the exact lives lost as long as they were under five hundred. As for livestock, it would only be mentioned if they were over 500,000. Others didn't matter.

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A few days later, he called for an emergency meeting.

Abdin arrived at the council early in the morning. The four members of the council appeared again.

Tairen was the first to speak. "Commander, what's going on? Did something happen? Did you close off the castle? Commander won't change the terms of our agreement, will he?"

Will of San had brought most of their talented disciples to the castle. They wanted to use the castle to create at least twenty core formation experts before the next ten years.

Additionally, leader San, the patriarch of the entire sect which Abdin hadn't seen before, had come out of seclusion and was among the thousand people sent to the castle. He was currently living in the castle as an ordinary guard without anyone knowing the truth. He wanted to use the opportunity to break through to Deva or at least pseudo-Deva.

After ten years, Will of San would take the castle and proceed to dominate Biyakis with their new core formation experts. That was the main reason they agreed to work for Abdin without any share of the castle.

So Tairen was terrified that the castle had been cut off. Did Commander find them out? Although they had decided to kill the man whenever he found their secret, the young man didn't want that. Especially since he'd witnessed Commander's power the day they arrived at the castle. If his guess was correct, Commander was at the level of his father. That would mean that even if they were to kill him, they would lose a lot of people. Something he wanted to avoid.

Abdin frowned. The four council members felt their hearts shiver. Especially Sulat who, just like Tairen, was thinking that Abdin had found out about him sending information to Biyakis. His body trembled and he lowered his head.

Abdin waved his hand. "Who among you doesn't know that ancient treasures are unpredictable? All of you know what this castle is when you come in. This is an ancient treasure of the ancestors. Based on my estimate, the castle would be open soon enough, after that the spirit ki would become denser and the buildings would all improve. There's no indication that anything bad will happen to us. If any of you want to leave, you can leave as soon as the castle opens."

Abdin was fuming. The four council members lowered their heads. The castle was an ancient treasure, that much was obvious. Such treasures were always riddled with opportunities and dangers. But they couldn't turn a blind eye to the spirit ki. No matter the danger, they still wanted to live in the castle even for just a while. So they shouldn't be accusing Commander of finding themselves in such a situation.

Suddenly, Renga remembered something. He bowed and said, "Your majesty, if I'm right, you have already read the manual for the castle. It has probably mentioned the possibility of the castle expanding."

Abdin nodded. A few treasures came with a manual or something of that sort that would explain their purpose. In the meantime, he could use that as an excuse to explain how he knew about the expansion.

Renga fell silent before he gathered his courage and said, "Your majesty, this is a castle of stone and dark iron. If it expanded beyond its borders... What would happen to our towns and villages standing in its way?"

That much was clear. The castle wouldn't fly over their villages. One of them would have to leave.

Abdin waved his hand. "Anything standing in the way of the castle would be obliterated."

The four members of the council felt a sudden chill in their bones. What kind of treasure was this? If their towns were obliterated, that would mean they'd have no place to return to even after the ten years had expired.

Tairen stood, fuming. "Commander, do you want to destroy my Will of San? If the castle destroys a single block in our foundation, our ancestors will not be able to rest in peace. How can you hide this from us?"

"I don't expect your ancestors to rest in peace if that happens," Abdin said. "But who told you my castle will expand eastward? From what I have seen, the castle will expand towards the west. Nanila, Wuran, and the three villages in between are the only settlements standing in the way."

Tairen fell silent before he pointed at Renga and Sulat. "That's why you invited them, you don't want them buried?"

Abdin smiled faintly but didn't speak.